New words, and when they were first used (part 3)

For every word ever used in the English language, there was a moment when someone used that word for the very first time. So on that theme, this week I take another look back through history to find out when a few words were originally used for the first time.

An elderly man teaching a youngerly child how to ride a bike.

1611: Elderly

The word 'elder' has been around since before the 12th century, and yet the word 'elderly' wasn't used until 1611. It seems like an obvious oversight to go over four centuries before someone had the idea to add 'ly' to the end of elder to refer to old people.

Having said that, the word 'younger' has also been around since before the 12th century, and we still haven't had the bright idea to refer to young people as 'youngerly'.* I suppose George Lucas came close when he used 'younglings', but as yet no-one has yet thought to use the word 'youngerly'.

* Except me. (c) Charles Fudgemuffin.

Random silliness (part 2)

If the world is getting you stressed right now, then here's my suggested antidote ... random silliness!

1) To start things off, here's a very silly, but also totally brilliant pacifier/dummy* for any parent who wants to know what their baby would look like if they had a moustache...

* Delete as appropriate depending on whether you're American or English.

Moustache pacifier/dummy.

He just needs a top hat and a monocle to complete the look.

Old words that are dying out (part 2)

As I've mentioned before on the Charles Fudgemuffin blog, language changes and some old words eventually die out. According to a survey by Perspectus Global, many words which were common just a few decades ago are disappearing from the vocabularies of younger people.

Here are a few more words that people aged 18-30 have never heard of:

1) Boogie (28%)

Silhouettes boogieing.

I tend to associate the word 'boogie' with the generation before me, so perhaps that explains why some of the younger generation have never heard of it. Anyway, for the benefit of the 28% of 18-30 year olds who don't know what 'boogie' means, it means to dance, specifically to pop music.

I think it may have been quite a cool word back in the day, but obviously if you said 'boogie' nowadays you'd probably sound like you were old and unfashionable, unless you said it ironically for a joke.

Funny football quotes (part 14)

The Qatar World Cup organisers lied and said they could hold the World Cup in the summer. However, it turned out they were lying and that wasn't possible, so as a result of their lies, the World Cup was moved to November. This means the Premier League season starts earlier this year to accommodate the Qatar World Cup organisers' lies.

Sticknaldo

I always like to celebrate the start of a new football season with a football themed blog post, so as a new football season starts this weekend (due to the lies of the Qatar World Cup organisers) that means that this week it's time for another round up of funny football quotes.

1) "In a way, Steve, Manchester City scoring early against Liverpool was the best thing that could happen to Liverpool."
~Sky Sports presenter

Yes, I can just imagine Jurgen Klopp giving his team talk...

"Right, lads. Go out there and concede an early goal, because that's the best thing that can happen to us."



2) "That was never a penalty in a million planets."
~Alan McInally